The present invention relates generally to electrical connectors for printed circuit board (PCB) and, mroe particularly, to an electrical connector including an insulating housing containing a plurality of substantially L-shaped contacts, front portions of which are adapted to engage mating contacts and rear portions of which extend downwardly through the insulating housing.
A variety of electrical connectors suitable for mounting on an equipment panel or PCB are well known. For example, it is known that the rear portions of contacts such as described above are bent so that their axes become substantially perpendicular to a plane of the PCB, and the rear ends are inserted into plated-through-holes (PTH) of the PCB to mount the receptacle connector in such a manner that the mating plug connector may be fitted into the receptacle connector in a plane parallel to the plane of the PCB.
The above PCB electrical receptacle connector has been assembled by bending contacts by 90 degrees either after inseration into the insulating housing or before inserting the bent contacts into the insulating housing. For this reason, an upper rear portion of the insulating housing has been cut off to handle the bent portions of the contacts. As a result, the bent portions are exposed at the cut-off portion, presenting the following problems.
(1) Since the bent portions are exposed from the insulating housing of a receptacle connector mounted on a unit or the like, dust or dirt tends to adhere to the contacts, causing poor insulation or even short circuiting across the contacts.
(2) The exposed contact portions are very easy to accidentally contact by the installing or maintenance personnel, creating a hazardous condition.
(3) The exposed contact portions impair the electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding action of the receptacle connector.
(4) When the PCB becomes faulty, the entire electrical connector must be replaced by removing all the mounting screws. This is a very time consuming and troublesome operation when a large number of such electrical connectors are mounted on the panel.
Recently, there is the increasing use of electrical connectors with a shielding shell for enclosing the contact containing insulating housing to prevent not only electromagnetic interference (EMI) but also damage to the electrical connector caused by plugging or unplugging operations or cable load itself. As the size and weight of electronic equipment decrease, there is an increased demand for a compact and light electrical connector to be mounted on a PCB. In general, the contact portions of contacts mounted in the electrical connector may be made compact by reducing the current capacity so that it is relatively easy to reduce the size of the entire contact. In the above electrical connector, however, the shielding shells of both receptacle and plug connectors must be engaged with each other so that there is the minimum shield length for effective engagement, thus limiting reduction in the connector length.